Kleinburg Brewery
- design
- / web
Are users happy and satisfied when they browse websites that you’ve designed and developed? Or do they leave more agitated than anything else? You already know how important the user experience is for website design, and ultimately, a positive experience should be your main goal.
Here are the top 3 trends in user experience that you should know as a web designer and developer.
1. Web Design
Users interact with a number of websites before they settle on one to make a purchase. That’s why it’s so important as a web designer to consider all touch-points in the overall user experience. Users might learn a few things from other sites, then ultimately use your website to complete a transaction.
You need to design a website structure that keeps the user’s mindset in mind based on other experiences with related websites. Your website is really just another part of the overall service they interpret as reaching their goal.
Make sure you remove any unnecessary activity for the user, and conduct tests during and after the design process.
2. Personalized Sites
Every person strives to feel special, so make that happen when you design a website. Give them what they want without them even having to ask for it. Personalization may vary, and can include related content, push notifications for things like birthdays, and product recommendations.
Make sure you take the time to get to know your user through practices like field studies, surveys and interviews. Document user scenarios and personas for personalization, and segment your audience to organize who you’re designing your website for.
3. Web Designing & Developing for Mobile Devices
Browsing the web on mobile devices has become the norm these days. For this reason, it’s more important than ever to have a site design that’s consistent with user experiences on a variety of devices, not just the PC. The majority of users typically switch from one device to another, even when completing the same task.
Two dominant strategies include responsive web design and adaptive design. Responsive web design involves a single website that adequately responds and modifies itself based on the device being used, and adaptive design involves designing various site layouts for different devices.
A mobile-first approach is always best. This simply means planning the layout for the tiniest of screens first, then scaling up. Designers need to isolate the important user experience components at the beginning, then add; compare that to designing all elements initially, then determining which ones to downgrade.
When it comes to designing for mobile devices, make sure to incorporate visual consistency across all devices, such as colour schemes and icons. Images will always appear differently on different devices as well, so make sure you properly size them.
In the end, a website is all about the user experience. You’ve worked hard to build traffic, now you want your readers/visitors to stay on the website as long as possible. And this means making the user experience a positive one. Keep these trends in mind next time you’ve got a website design project in the works.